Microsoft (MSFT) is entering a new chapter in its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy—one defined less by partnership and more by independence. After investing nearly $14 billion in OpenAI and tightly integrating its models into Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub, and other flagship products, the company is now openly pursuing what it calls “true self-sufficiency” in AI. That ambition goes beyond incremental diversification. It signals a structural shift toward developing in-house frontier models, expanding proprietary AI chips like the Maia accelerator, and reducing reliance on a single external supplier for its most critical technology layer.